Possibility of 'honor killing' mulled in Orchard Park slaying

Estranged husbandcharged with murder

The gruesome death of Orchard Park resident Aasiya Zubair Hassan� who was found decapitated�and the arrest of her estranged husband are drawing widespread attention, as speculation roils about the role that the couple�s religion may have played.

Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was arrested Thursday and charged with second- degree murder after telling police his wife was dead at the office of their television station in the Village of Orchard Park.

While Muslim leaders have urged against applying cultural stereotypes to the crime, advocates for women linked the killing to attitudes in Muslim societies.

�This was apparently a terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women�s subordination to men,� said Marcia Pappas, New York State president of the National Organization for Women.

She decried the scant national media attention paid to the story, which broke the same day as the commuter plane crash that killed 50 people in Clarence.

While domestic violence affects all cultures, Muslim women find it harder to break the silence about it because of a stigma, she said.

�Too many Muslim men are using their religious beliefs to justify violence against women,� she said.

After episodes of domestic violence, Aasiya Hassan, 37, filed for divorce Feb. 6 and obtained an order of protection barring her husband from their Orchard Park home, her lawyer, Corey Hogan, said.

She and her husband both worked at Bridges TV, a satellite- distributed news and opinion channel. They launched the station in 2004 in an effort to counter images of Muslim violence and extremism.

Nadia Shahram, a matrimonial lawyer in Williamsville, said that some Muslim men consider divorce a dishonor on their family.

A teacher of family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, Shahram said that �fanatical� Muslims believe �honor killing� is justified for bringing dishonor on a family.

While it has not been determined whether Aasiya Hassan�s death had anything to do with fanatical beliefs, the community should address the attitudes that make divorce particularly difficult for many Muslim families, Shahram said.

�I have not had one [case] where the husband wanted to settle outside of the court system,� she said.

In some interpretations, the Quran allows husbands to punish �disobedient� women, Shahram said, adding that this is a minority view.

An open community forum on the issue is scheduled from 3 to 6 p. m. Sunday at the UB Law School�s Moot Court on the North Campus in Amherst, she said. Imam Fajri Ansari, the leader of a Buffalo mosque, and other experts on Islam are scheduled to attend, she said.

Orchard Park police Monday continued to investigate last week�s death and remained quiet about its details.

Police believe that Aasiya Hassan died where she was found, in a hallway at the TV station�s offices on Thorn Avenue in the village, Police Chief Andrew Benz said.

The office was released as a crime scene Saturday, he said, but the effort to determine the murder weapon continued.

�We�re looking to make sure we find the weapon,� Benz said, adding that police don�t have a confession.

Muzzammil Hassan is scheduled to appear at a felony hearing in Orchard Park on Wednesday to determine bail.

A Family Court hearing today is expected to address the future of the couple�s two children, a girl age 4 and a boy age 6. Their grandparents, having traveled from Texas and Pakistan, are expected to attend, said John Tregilio, a lawyer for the children.

Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children, ages 17 and 18, who lived with the family on Big Tree Road in Orchard Park. The couple had been married eight years.

Naeem Randhawa, a documentary filmmaker in Dallas who worked with the Hassans, said it was apparent that their television venture was in trouble, but not their marriage.

He characterized Muzzammil Hassan as aggressive in a business sense, with fundraising efforts in the Muslim community that were necessary to keep the station going.

On a personal level, �he was not extremely talkative � he would sit back and listen,� Randhawa said. �He came across not as a passionate guy, [but] more reserved.�

Friends said they remember Aasiya Hassan as a vivacious and intelligent woman. For a time the couple owned a convenience store in Orchard Park where she would work, sometimes with her son.

Muzzammil Hassan graduated magna cum laude with an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 1996, according to biographical information on the TV station�s Web site.

In a 2005 interview with The Buffalo News, he said that the idea for the TV station was sparked two years earlier when the couple heard derogatory remarks about American Muslims on a radio talk show.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/mailto:[email protected] - [email protected]

But really Chrysalis so many killers don't look the part.

Domestic Homicides

• On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner. http://www.pcusa.org/womensadvocacy/issues/violenceagainstwomen/stats.htm#7 - 7
• Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than 4 percent of the murders of men. http://www.pcusa.org/womensadvocacy/issues/violenceagainstwomen/stats.htm#7 - 8
  

RESPONDING TO THE KILLING OF AASIYA HASSAN: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERS OF AMERICAN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES
Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, ISNA, 2/16/09
By Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali
Executive Director, ADAMS Center
Vice-President, The Islamic Society of North America

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is saddened and shocked by the news of the loss of one of our respected sisters, Aasiya Hassan whose life was taken violently. To God we belong and to Him we return (Qur�an 2:156). We pray that she find peace in God�s infinite Mercy, and our prayers and sympathies are with sister Aasiya�s family. Our prayers are also with the Muslim community of Buffalo who have been devastated by the loss of their beloved sister and the shocking nature of this incident.

This is a wake up call to all of us, that violence against women is real and can not be ignored. It must be addressed collectively by every member of our community. Several times each day in America, a woman is abused or assaulted. Domestic violence is a behavior that knows no boundaries of religion, race, ethnicity, or social status. Domestic violence occurs in every community. The Muslim community is not exempt from this issue. We, the Muslim community, need to take a strong stand against domestic violence. Unfortunately, some of us ignore such problems in our community, wanting to think that it does not occur among Muslims or we downgrade its seriousness.

I call upon my fellow imams and community leaders to never second-guess a woman who comes to us indicating that she feels her life to be in danger. We should provide support and help to protect the victims of domestic violence by providing for them a safe place and inform them of their rights as well as refer them to social service providers in our areas.

Marriage is a relationship that should be based on love, mutual respect and kindness. No one who experiences a marriage that is built on these principles would pretend that their life is in danger. We must respond to all complaints or reports of abuse as genuine and we must take appropriate and immediate action to ensure the victim�s safety, as well as the safety of any children that may be involved.

Women who seek divorce from their spouses because of physical abuse should get full support from the community and should not be viewed as someone who has brought shame to herself or her family. The shame is on the person who committed the act of violence or abuse. Our community needs to take a strong stand against abusive spouses. We should not make it easy for people who are known to abuse to remarry if they have already victimized someone. We should support people who work against domestic violence in our community, whether they are educators, social service providers, community leaders, or other professionals. . .

A Muslim-American television executive who allegedly beheaded his wife days after she filed for divorce remains jailed without bail following a court appearance in western New York.

Muzzammil Hassan, 44, did not speak during the brief appearance Wednesday before Judge Philip Marshall in Orchard Park Village Court, where an attorney waived Hassan's right to a felony hearing.

Officials at the Erie County District Attorney's Office told FOXNews.com that Hassan will now be held for possible grand jury action within 45 days.

Hassan � who was shackled at his wrists and ankles during his first court appearance � wore a tan suit, white shirt and a tie. He allegedly beheaded Aasiya Hassan, 37, on Thursday and surrendered to police. Hassan was later charged with the second-degree murder of his wife, whose body was found at the office of Bridges TV, their television station in Orchard Park, near Buffalo.

"He came in and said his wife was dead," said Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz, who declined to elaborate on the particulars of his conversation with the suspect.

Reacting to speculation that the crime may have been an "honor killing," defense attorney James Harrington said "culture, religion doesn't play a role."

"It's not an issue in this case," said Harrington, who described the burly businessman as almost in shock.

"He has an almost blunted affect. He's having difficulty coping with this," the lawyer said.

Following multiple episodes of domestic violence, Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce on Feb. 6 and obtained an order of protection that barred her husband from their home, according to attorney Elizabeth DiPirro, whose law firm, Hogan Willig, represented Aasiya Hassan in the divorce proceeding.

The Islamic Society of North America issued a statement of condolence to Buffalo's Muslim community and urged leaders to take a strong stand against domestic violence.

"Women who seek divorce from their spouses because of physical abuse should get full support from the community and should not be viewed as someone who has brought shame to herself or her family," the statement by Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali said.

Muzzammil and Aasiya Hassan founded Bridges TV in November 2004 to counter anti-Islam stereotypes, touting the network as the "first-ever full-time home for American Muslims," according to a 2004 press release.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nigerian Man Murders Wife in America

Miami, FL (AHN) - The head of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women is slamming the national press for what she calls a �deafening silence� regarding a case where a prominent Muslim businessman near Buffalo allegedly killed his wife and sawed her head off.

Muzzamil Hassan owned a television station aimed at fighting Muslim stereotypes in United States. He was arrested on Feb. 12 for allegedly murdering his wife, 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan. Aasiya reportedly was seeking a divorce from her husband and also obtained a protection order against him on Feb. 6.

NOW New York President Marcia Pappas slammed the national media for giving what she considers minimal coverage to the story, and Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita for referring to the alleged crime as �the worst form of domestic violence possible.�

�What is �domestic� about this violence,� Pappas asked in a NOW press release. �It is high time we stop regarding assaults and murders as a lover�s quarrel gone bad.�

Pappas said the story has not garnered bigger media play because many media outlets don�t want to offend Muslims.

�Are we now so respectful of the Muslims� religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in its name,� sahe asked in the press release.

�Had this awful murder been perpetrated by an African American, a Latino, a Jew, or a Catholic, the story would be flooding the airwaves. What is this deafening silence?�

A Google search found that the story was reported by major U.S. and international outlets, including the New York Times, Fox News, CNN and the Guardian, among many others.  

NOW New York President Slams Media Over Coverage Of Muslim Man�s Beheading Of His Wife By David Goodhue - AHN Reporter, 02/21/09, http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014168184 - http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014168184

I have often found myself in disagreement with NOW.  I do believe that the reason these crimes are downplayed by media outlets have more to do with the Boys� Club and the way many members of the Boys� Club treat the women in their lives and how they see and feel about women.

Muzzamil Hassan regardless of ethnicity and religion is a member of that club.  It is not so far fetched.  For decades, women went into court against domestic violence and found themselves further abused by the court system itself. 

In fact women from my mother�s generation and my grandmother�s generation can repeat too many incidences of women whose deaths were directly or indirectly related to domestic violence.

How do I know this?  Because I am blessed.  My mother empowered me by informing me of my rights as a woman and my rights as a child of God.  She used to tell her daughters, �You are not here on this earth to be any man�s punching bag.�pumabydesign001.wordpress.com

I agree this is a domestic violence case and has nothing to do with Islamic honor killing or terrorism.

Earlier this year a man dressed himself up as Santa Clause and murdered his whole family. Nobody ran around yelling Christian honor killing or Christian terrorism�

Fact of the matter is divorce has become a zero sum game in this country. There has to be losers and winners. The adversarial legal system may work for other situations but it has failed miserably when people file for divorce. There is a whole divorce industry in this country which is dedicated to destroying marriages and families. The lawyers keep pushing and twisting all members of the family until something or someone breaks�.

By the time a contested divorce is granted in America there are many, many casualties left behind.

These murder cases are the more extreme examples of an inhumane divorce process which is the bread and butter of the divorce industry.

Prior to his marriage to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aasiya_Zubair - Aasiya Zubair , Muzzammil Hassan was married twice before -- once to a non-Muslim woman with which he produced two children, and once for a year to another Muslim woman. According to the family of the latter, both of his earlier wives filed for divorce on the same grounds of severe domestic violence and abuses. ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzammil_Hassan#cite_note-21 -}

In addition to the two children from his first marriage (ages 17 and 18), he has two children (a girl age 4 and a boy age 6) from his third marriage (to Aasiya). ^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzammil_Hassan#cite_note-22 -}

Now the question for the 'Honor Killing Theory" pushers

Why didn't he kill the other two women who got divorces?
^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzammil_Hassan#cite_note-22 -}

Men exploit lenient laws to murder women for inheritance, settling family feuds or to hide other crimes.

AMMAN - When 18-year-old Maha decided that she wanted to quit her family's prostitution ring, her brother killed her and alleged it was to "cleanse" the family's honour.

Maha is one of hundreds of women in Jordan and other conservative societies who rights groups say are killed every year by their male relatives in so-called honour crimes for "sullying" the reputation of their families.

The United Nations has reported such crimes in Brazil, Britain, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Uganda as well as in nations such as Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey.

Accurate figures on such killings are hard to come by because they often go unreported.

In Jordan, between 15 and 20 women are murdered annually in the name of "honour" and at least eight such killings have been reported so far this year, according to Jordanian authorities. Last year 17 such murders were recorded.

But the label "honour killings" can be misleading in this tiny kingdom's male-dominated society of about six million people.

Judges, lawyers, activists and experts agree that in most cases men exploit lenient laws to murder women for inheritance, settling family feuds or to hide other crimes.

"Maha did not want to continue to prostitute herself, so her brother killed her," Israa Tawalbeh, said Jordan's first woman coroner.

According to Tawalbeh, Maha's brother was a drug addict with a criminal record and ran the family's prostitution ring in an east Amman neighbourhood.

"After killing his sister, he turned himself in and claimed that he murdered her to cleanse the family's honour. Of course forensic examination proved that she worked in prostitution, and the brother was sentenced to two years in prison," she said.

"Nobody cared that the girl wanted to quit the prostitution business. Her brother got away because it is a male-dominated society and it is unfair."

Judge Jehad Oteibi, spokesman for the Judiciary Council, said court records show that many "honour killings" are committed for reasons related to inheritance.

"Forensic tests prove that a lot of victims were virgins, which show that there are other motives behind the killings, including family problems. It's a very sensitive issue in our society," Oteibi said.

In early August, a 26-year-old man shot dead his unmarried 23-year-old sister near Amman because she had disappeared from home for four months with a man. A medical examination, however, showed that the woman was a virgin when she died.

According to Human Rights Watch, 95 percent of women killed in 1997 in Jordan in alleged honour killings were later proved to be innocent.

"Many women are forced to give up their rights or face death. Their families might kill them and allege it is related to honour, and not money," Oteibi said.

"But we can't know the truth because the women are dead."

"Ignorance and poverty is a deadly mix," the judge stressed.

University of Jordan sociologist Seri Nasser blamed the legal system.

"Most of the judges are males who use their powers to reduce the sentence. They forget that women are victims of their male relatives' greed," Nasser said.

Perpetrators get reduced sentences as parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher sentences, despite campaigns by local and international human rights activists.

According to article 340 of the penal code, a defendant who "surprises his wife or any close female relative" in an act of adultery or fornication may invoke a defence of "crime of honour" should they murder the woman.

For women, "a wife who surprises her husband in the crime of adultery or in an unlawful bed in the marital home" may invoke a similar defence -- but there are no reports or any official figures on any "honour" killings of men in Jordan.

Article 98 of the penal code stipulates that "an extenuating justification can be invoked by anyone who commits a crime in a fit of rage as a result of an unrightful and dangerous act carried out by the victim" -- which may significantly reduce penalties for murder.

Although only few defendants were able to meet the requirements of the law, most have avoided trial for murder, rights activists say. The maximum penalty for first-degree murder is death and for second-degree murder 15 years in jail.

But even those convicted rarely spend more than two years in prison.

"In the past 50 years, only a handful of (accused) were able to meet the requirements of the law," lawyer Rehab Qaddumi of rights group Amnesty International said, agreeing with Oteibi that many of these killings are not related to "honour" in any way.

Qaddumi - along with other experts � noted that Islam prohibits such crimes and that the problem is not "purely Jordanian".

"To stop the killing of women article 340 should be scrapped. I think Islamic sharia law should be applied," she said.

Under sharia law, "punishment for adultery or fornication can't be enforced unless there is a confession by the culprit or a testimony of four reliable, sane and adult eyewitnesses who each saw the process of sexual intercourse."

Such punishments are meant to be only applied by a sate when its citizens are aware of them, and throughout history they rarely took place as it is unlikely that a man or woman would voluntarily confess of adultery when knowing its punishment.

The chances of been seen by four trustworthy witnesses while a man or a woman are committing the actual act of sexual intercourse (non penetration does not count) is even less likely.

In fact, in Islam, acts of �honour killings� amount to murder and are usually punishable by death.

Asma Khader, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, said "the level of leniency in enforcing the law has dropped."

"The government is trying to increase public awareness to tackle this problem. The number of 'honour killings' dropped from 20 to 25 crimes a year about 10 years ago to around 15 now," she added.

Khader, a lawyer and former minister, warned that such killings "disempower women and discourage them from playing a role in public life."

"I find this more dangerous than the killings," she said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, his wife Queen Rania and other royals have led efforts to fight "honour killings" and reform the law.

"This practice of 'honour killing' is a form of murder without trial, which is contrary to Islam," the queen has said.

"We should have no tolerance for the acceptance of 'honour killings' ... We have to change some cultural and societal perceptions of the place and value of women in society."

But such calls often are not heeded as the perpetrators of such killings are not even religious to take notice of what Islam has to say on the matter.

The point is not that "crimes of passion" or "honor killings" do or don't happen in un-islamic countries but that the punishment is too lenient in mostly islamic countries. 

What about the laws for 2009?

Is that what you wrote? Because I could have sworn you wrote:

and:

I must have missed the part where you were vocalising equal punishment under the law.

Thank you for that link.

I would say Taliban is conservative Islam.

Salam/Peace,